India vs New Zealand | India Have Cultivated a Winning Habit: KL Rahul

India’s wicket-keeper batsman KL Rahul can do no wrong it would seem. He’s piled on the runs at the top of the order, proved to be capable with the big gloves and after leading the team in the New Zealand inning in the fifth T20I in Mount Maunganui Rahul believes this series is massive confidence booster.

“(I am) very pleased, great to be standing here with a five-nil. We have been playing exceptional T20 cricket, to come here and execute our skills every game, to have squeezed out wins, is a confidence booster,” Rahul said.

This is the first time any team has clean swept a five-match T20I series and it is also the first time India have won a T20I series in New Zealand. The victory also extends India’s unbeaten streak to eight.

“I think it’s a winning habit we have cultivated. The onus is on finding different ways to win.”

While India have been fantastic in most departments in the series, Rahul’s performances have driven the side on more than a few difficult occasions which has helped provide solutions in terms of team combinations ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year in Australia. Rahul’s scored 224 runs in the five matches batting at the top of the order, his favoured position.

“Not thinking about T20 World Cup, hopefully I can continue playing this way,” Rahul explained.

Other than Rahul, speedster Jasprit Bumrah was undoubtedly one of the factors that helped India win from difficult situations. Bumrah, who played his first T20I series here after returning from injury, finished with figures of 3/12 in the fifth game which earned him the Player of the Match award.

Bumrah finished as the second highest wicket-taker in the series with six wickets, two behind Shardul Thakur’s tally of eight.

“The match got close at one, point but we had belief, that we could squeeze in a couple of tight overs,” Bumrah said at the post match presentation ceremony.